Telly has solely delivered 35,000 of its free televisions with always-on advertisements

Telly appeared on the house theater scene in 2023 with an uncommon proposition. Its enterprise mannequin revolves round giving prospects free dual-screen televisions the place the decrease display reveals continuous commercials. On the time, the start-up’s execs projected that Telly would ship its first 500,000 screens that summer time. Nonetheless, Janko Roettgers of Lowpass reported that Telly solely had 35,000 sets in folks’s houses on the finish of the third quarter of 2025. The determine seems to return from a quarterly investor replace, however Telly did not present Roettgers with any touch upon the report.

Personally, I do not assume I would need a free TV that perpetually pelts me with advertisements, nevertheless it appears Telly did actually have some curiosity in its strategy; the corporate reportedly had 250,000 pre-orders in June 2023. Nonetheless, it bumped into points with getting these televisions to prospects in a single piece. The quarterly report allegedly mentioned that 10 % of Telly’s shipments via FedEx arrived damaged. A thread on the corporate’s Reddit web page from a 12 months in the past backs that up, chronicling delayed shipments and damaged replacements. So briefly, issues aren’t going so nice for the corporate proper now.